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EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL WHEN YOU DON’T LOOK DOWN
(VICTORY)
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As the missing link between pop-punk hitmakers like New Found Glory and metalcore trendsetters like Poison the Well, Glasseater have played a vital role on the Miami all-ages scene since 1998. On their first album for Victory and their fourth overall, frontman Julio Marin’s choirboy vocals are a sweet antidote to the band’s stormy melodies and jarring attack.
The first single, "At Your Own Risk," finds them at their heaviest: during a mosh-pit breakdown worthy of Hatebreed, bassist Anthony Lopez takes the microphone and growls the track’s elegant Papa Roach–style guitar hooks into submission. That song and several others deal with girl trouble more gracefully than most emo does, but love isn’t the only thing on Marin’s mind. The brooding title track is a call to arms against socio-political apathy; the upbeat anthem "From Cradle to Grave" takes the inescapable reality of dying alone as a challenge to seize the day. Cheap thrills abound: the giddy "Art of Communication" moves like a somersault, and "Shortcut for a Quick Getaway" kicks off at a rampaging tempo. With kindred spirits the Used and Finch already on the fast track to stardom, Glasseater may finally be in the right place at the right time.
